Fatima Bulla-Musakwa
Features Writer
JUST six months after his wedding, 26-year-old Tatenda Yotamu was dead.
As usual, after finishing work around 5 pm in Harare’s CBD, he boarded a kombi bound for Budiriro.
However, he never made it home, where his newly-wed wife, Christina Stephano, and sister, Wadzanai, were waiting for him.
A Toyota Hiace kombi, carrying 20 passengers, including Yotamu, collided head-on with a Mercedes-Benz Atego truck, carrying three people.
The accident occurred along Glen Eagles Road, Harare, near the First-Class Coaches garage.
“Tatenda was on the floor and still alive, and we managed to talk to him. He did not seem to be in much pain at the time,” Wadzanai recalled.
“We spoke to him and encouraged him that he would recover as he was picked up by an ambulance.”
When the two women arrived at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, doctors were already urgently calling for Yotamu’s close relatives to be by his side.
The young, well-known music instructor was restless with pain as nurses attempted to check his blood pressure and pulse.
After a struggle, Yotamu passed away with his wife standing beside him.
Since his burial, the house has become quieter, and the knowledge that he will not be coming back tears her heart apart.
She revealed in a recent interview the profound distress her sister-in-law, who is a few months pregnant, is experiencing.
“It’s not easy for her, especially because Tate died in her presence and she is a few months pregnant. She is coping, but it’s not easy.
“This is even reflected in her social media posts,” Wadzanai said.
Inconsolable, Yotamu’s widow, Christina, said, “Honestly, I am in pain. That’s all I can say”.
His friend, Edward Zamadenga, mourned the loss of a future community leader who was deeply passionate about church ministry and mentoring youths in music.
The accident claimed three lives, including Yotamu’s, and occurred while the commuter omnibus was attempting to overtake.
According to the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ), head-on collisions occur for several reasons, including drivers attempting to overtake without a clear view or sufficient road visibility.
From running red traffic lights and creating non-existent lanes to driving into oncoming traffic and overloading vehicles, national police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, highlighted persistent traffic violations across both private and commercial sectors.
Since the beginning of this year, accidents have claimed the lives of numerous family members, leaving survivors heartbroken and without their support systems.
Last month, four people died, while three were injured, when a Honda Fit vehicle was involved in a collision with a Zhongtong bus after failing to give way at the 437km peg along the Harare-Bulawayo Highway.
In August, twenty-eight people died after an overloaded commuter omnibus collided head-on with a haulage truck at the 130-km peg along the Harare-Masvingo highway.
Five of the 28 were members of the same family.
A head-on collision wiped out six members of the Mujuru family. – a mother and her five children.
